I have been reading with great interest not only my colleague Jeff Haymond’s posts over the past couple of weeks on progressive income taxation (1/29), income inequality (2/3), and a potential proportional income tax (2/9), but also the spirited discussion over the content of the posts. I have been thinking about biblical integration in economics and business for over 30 years and the current discussion on BATG has knocked off a few of the cobwebs. I plan to make a couple of posts on general biblical integration with special emphasis on political economy. This first post will attempt to lay a foundation upon which to outline a framework for attempting to understand the relationship between the Bible, Christian thinking and political economy.

When I think of integration, I think of making something whole – to pull parts together. Biblical integration is interpreting / understanding the world in a way that is consistent with the Bible and acting consistent with that understanding. The understanding is one’s biblical worldview. One of the first steps in good biblical integration is to understand what the Bible reveals to us and what actions should flow from the revelation. The Bible is God’s word to fallen man revealing God’s plan to redeem fallen man. Francis Schaeffer puts it this way in Genesis in Space and Time (p.35).

The Bible is a most efficient book. We must remember it’s purpose: It is God’s message to fallen men. The Old Testament gave men what they needed from the Fall till the first coming of Christ. The Old and New Testaments together give all that men need from the Fall till the second coming of Christ. Many other details which we need are also given, but the main purpose is kept central and uncluttered.

The further away any topic is from this central theme, the more difficult it is to interpret / understand the issue from a biblical perspective. Everything the Bible says is true and accurate and when the Bible speaks to specific topics the revelation is infallible, true, and accurate and a secure foundation for thought and action.

As I am writing this there are thousands of people praying for a newborn baby that is scheduled for heart surgery tomorrow. We would think it strange if the surgeons were to leaf through Exodus searching for specific information on heart valves. There is much in the Bible that will influence and direct the surgeons about how they go about fulfilling their callings, but not direct information pertaining to the surgery itself. Heart surgery is not directly addressed in the Bible and and everyone wants surgeons that have the most skill and best education and training. In fact, the most biblically illiterate people would think it odd if the surgeon relied heavily on Exodus for the specifics of the surgery. While political economy has a more direct connection to the Bible than heart surgery, political economy is not a primary theme in Scripture, and the way we think about political economy today is rarely if ever addressed in a normative fashion.

The New Hampshire Confession of Faith* (1833) opens with these words.

We believe [that] the Holy Bible was written by man divinely inspired, and it is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us; and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true centre of Christian Union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.

According to this historically important confession of faith salvation is the theme of the Bible. The Bible reveals to us God’s plan of salvation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s plan worked out in history is primarily what is revealed to us in Scripture. However, the statement reads the Bible is “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.” We should use the Bible as a proving ground for all of our thinking. How well does any system of political economy comport with biblical principles? This needs to be the driving question when we are attempting biblical integration as we build our biblical worldview. When the Bible says very little directly about a subject, we need to try to make our thinking on the subject consistent with biblical revelation. This is the task before when we attempt biblical integration in political economy.

The Bible and biblical thinking is very important in all discussions about political economy. We need through careful study to understand what the specific passage and or passages from the Bible were saying to the original audience. Once we know what was being said to the original audience, we may be able to extrapolate principles that will help us to better understand political economy today. This understanding will shape our worldview providing a platform from which to act.

Lord willing, in my next post on this topic, I am going to attempt to discuss a biblically derived framework for understanding political economy. The framework is: the image of God in man.

* This version of the New Hampshire Confession is found in William L. Lumpkin’s Baptist Confessions of Faith and is taken from William Crowell’s Church Members Handbook and is believed to be “substantially like the original addition” (p. 361). There are no original copies of the New Hampshire confession extant.